Skirted floor scraper blade

ABSTRACT

A scraper blade for fitting into a gripper such as a mounting, holding, or clamping device of a scraper. The inventive scraper blade is particularly useful with a floor scraper. The inventive scraper blade has a beveled edge portion, a flat portion, a skirt portion extending outward from the flat portion, and a shank portion fitting into a gripper of a scraper apparatus. The skirt portion has a generally vertical rear side which preferably rests against the nose of the gripper. A flat shank portion extends rearward from the rear side of the skirt portion and serves as the gripping surface of the blade for the gripper of the scraper apparatus. Dislodged material travels over the beveled edge portion, then over the flat portion, and then directed upward over the skirt portion and then over the nose of the gripper avoiding jamming at the gripper nose.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to a blade useful in a scraper or knife.More particularly, the present invention relates to a blade having askirt spaced from the edge.

2. Description of the Related Art

The use of scrapers for removing paint, tile, wall paper, and similarcoverings from a floor or wall is well known. A drawback in suchscrapers is that material collects at the intersection of the scraperblade and the nose of the blade gripper. This reduces the effectivenessof the scraper and shortens the effective scraping stroke. Material maybecome lodged between the shank of the blade of the scraper and thegripper, causing undesired deformation of the gripper blade resulting ingouging of the surface being cleaned. The shorter strokes and addedresistance to scraping as material builds up on the nose of the gripper,particularly in floor scrapers, results in less useful life of thescraper handle. Also, time is lost in removing material collected on thenose of the gripper and material jammed between the gripper and theshank of the scraper blade.

It would be desirable to provide a scraper blade which allows theremoved material to travel over the nose of the blade gripper, thusavoiding the jamming of removed material between the gripper and theblade. It would, also, be desirable to provide such a scraper bladewhich is so configured as to be repeatedly sharpened without effectingthe overall shape and function of the blade.

U.S. Pat. No. 5,924,204, issued Jul. 20, 1999, to Lane describes ascraper having a wedge-shaped blade to avoid material from building upor being jammed against the nose of the gripper and between the nose ofthe blade gripper and the blade. Removed material travels up over thewedge and continues over the gripper, thus avoiding buildups of materialagainst the gripper nose. The present invention provides a flat portionbetween the beveled blade edge and the wedge-shaped skirt allowing thebeveled blade to be sharpened repeatedly without changing the angle ofthe bevel or the height of the skirt. This would not be possible in the'204 blade without removing the blade and reducing the overall height ofthe wedge, thus exposing the gripper nose to material buildups.

U.S. Pat. No. 3,035,344, issued May 22, 1962, to E. G. Brown describes aknife with stripped inclined surfaces rising up from the sharp edge ofthe blade.

U.S. Pat. No. 6,237,225 B1, issued May 29, 2001, to Tarrant describes afloor scraper useful for removing vinyl tile or floor covering fromfloors.

U.S. Pat. No. 323,502, issued Aug. 4, 1885, to Edwards, describes ascraper having an inclined edge portion.

U.S. Pat. No. 2,268,393, issued Dec. 30, 1941, to Hanssen, describes ahand-held floor scraper.

None of the above inventions and patents, taken either singularly or incombination, is seen to describe the instant invention as claimed. Thusa skirted floor scraper blade solving the aforementioned problems isdesired.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention is a scraper blade for fitting into a gripper suchas a mounting, holding, or clamping device of a scraper. The inventivescraper blade is particularly useful with a floor scraper. The inventivescraper blade has a beveled edge portion, a flat portion, a skirtportion extending outward from the flat portion, and a shank portionfitting into a gripper of a scraper apparatus. The skirt portion has agenerally vertical rear side which preferably rests against the nose ofthe gripper. A flat shank portion extends rearward from the rear side ofthe skirt portion and serves as the gripping surface of the blade forthe gripper of the scraper apparatus.

Material dislodged by the edge of the blade travels over the bevelededge portion, then over the flat portion, and then is directed upwardover the skirt portion and then over the nose of the gripper. Thisavoids the accumulating and jamming of dislodged material between thescraper and the gripper, allowing longer strokes when cutting orscraping, less wear and tear on the gripping apparatus, a longer lastingblade due to its inherent heavy duty construction, and the avoidance ofbending or warping the blade gripping device which results in the bladefalling out of the gripper during the scraping operation.

Accordingly, it is a principal object of the invention to provide ablade for a scraper which prevents the accumulation of removed materialbetween the scraper blade and the gripper of a scraper apparatus.

It is another object of the invention to provide a blade as above whichdirects removed material over the nose of the gripper of the scraperapparatus.

It is a further object of the invention to provide a blade as abovewhich may be repeatedly sharpened without changing the angle of thescraper cutting edge.

Still another object of the invention is to provide a blade as abovewhich is useful as a knife blade for a variety of purposes where theblade is mounted in a mounting device to direct material or debris toflow over the mounting, holding, or clamping device.

It is an object of the invention to provide improved elements andarrangements thereof for the purposes described which is inexpensive,dependable and fully effective in accomplishing its intended purposes.

These and other objects of the present invention will become readilyapparent upon further review of the following specification anddrawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of the skirted floor scraper or knife bladeaccording to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an elevational side view of the scraper or knife blade of FIG.1.

FIG. 3 is a plan view of the scraper or knife blade of FIG. 1.

FIG. 4 is a top view of a standard scraper blade holder with theinventive blade of FIG. 1.

FIG. 5 is a side view of the scraper and blade of FIG. 4.

FIG. 6 is a sectional side view of a hand-held scraper blade holder withthe scraper blade of the present invention installed.

FIG. 7 is a sectional side view of a scraper blade holder of FIG. 6 witha prior art scraper blade installed.

Similar reference characters denote corresponding features consistentlythroughout the attached drawings.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

The present invention is a scraper blade for fitting into a gripper suchas a mounting, holding, or clamping device of a scraper. The inventivescraper blade is particularly useful with a floor scraper. The inventivescraper blade has a beveled edge portion, a flat portion, a skirtportion extending outward from the flat portion, and a shank portionfitting into a gripper of a scraper apparatus. The skirt portion has agenerally vertical rear side which preferably rests against the nose ofthe gripper. A flat shank portion extends rearward from the rear side ofthe skirt portion and serves as the gripping surface of the blade forthe gripper of the scraper apparatus.

Material dislodged by the blade edge travels over the beveled edgeportion, then over the flat portion, and then is directed upward overthe skirt portion and then over the nose of the gripper. This avoids theaccumulating and jamming of dislodged material between the scraper andthe gripper, allowing longer strokes when cutting or scraping, less wearand tear on the gripping apparatus, a longer lasting blade due to itsinherent heavy duty construction, and the avoidance of bending orwarping the blade gripping device which results in the blade falling outof the gripper during the scraping operation.

Referring to FIGS. 1, 2, and 3, there is shown a perspective view, aside view in elevation, and a plan view, respectively, of the knife orscraper blade of the present invention. Blade 10 has a cutting edge 12of edge bevels 14. Edge bevels 14 extend from blade flat portion 16which leads to skirt portion 18, having upper and lower skirts 20.Skirts 20 are generally wedge shaped, having a concave inclined surface21 and a vertical rear wall 22. A shank portion 24 extends from theskirt portion for insertion into a mounting, holding or clamping device.

Referring to FIGS. 4 and 5, there is shown a plan view and a sideelevation view, respectively, of a floor scraper 30 having a handle 32connected with a blade holder body 34. The adjustment of blade gripperscrews 36 adjust tension on blade gripper portion 38 to hold or releasethe inventive blade 10. Blade gripper portion 38 has a gripper nose 40where the shank 24 of blade 10 is inserted up to the rear walls ofskirts 20.

Referring to FIGS. 6 and 7, there is shown a side view of a hand-heldfloor scraper 50 with the scraper blade 10 of the present inventioninstalled, and side view of a the same scraper blade holder 50 with aprior art scraper blade B installed. As is illustrated, paint P is beingremoved from floor F by floor scrapers 50 having blade grippers 58 withthe inventive blade 10 and the prior art blade B installed throughgripper noses 60 and held by their shanks in respective gripper portions58. As is illustrated, as the scrapers 50 are urged forward, the paintchips C are removed by the edge of the respective blades and travel overthe bevels to the flat portion of the blades. As seen in FIG. 7, theprior art blade B simply extends upward through gripper nose 60 intogripper 58, allowing chips C to jam against the nose 60 of gripperportion 58. As is seen in FIG. 6, the paint chips C travel over thebevels and the flat portion of the inventive blade 10 where they arediverted upward by the skirts so as to travel over gripper portion 58without jamming into the gripper nose 60.

A preferred embodiment of the inventive knife or scraper blade has aflat portion and said shank portion of {fraction (1/16)} inch inthickness and the distance between the upper and lower skirt extremes is⅛ inch. The inventive knife or scraper blade has a beveled edge portionof ⅛ inch in width, a flat portion of ⅛ inch in width, a skirt portionof ⅛ inch in width, and a shank portion of ¼ inch in width, the overallblade totaling about ⅝ inch in width.

The inventive knife or scraper blade is useful in a variety ofindustries including flooring, construction, paper mills, saw mills,manufacturing, processing and hazardous material removal. The blade maybe of any length desired including 3 inch, 4 inch, 5 inch, 8 inch, forexample. The blade may be adapted in specific dimensions to be useful ina variety of applications such as small, hand-held scrapers andmultipurpose heavy duty flooring scrapers. The blade may also bemodified in material or dimensions as required for use in industriessuch as paper mills and saw mills where the knife or scraper blade maybe used for cutting, chipping, shearing, and shaving. The inventiveknife or scraper blade is useful with a variety of materials such amortars, mastics, adhesives, tile, vinyl, wood, paint, rubber, tar, andplastics.

The inventive knife or scraper blade may be constructed from anyappropriate material, such as hard treated steel. The blade may also beof flat steel extending from the front edge to the shank and the skirtsmay be of an appropriate hard plastic material which adheres to thesteel blade or is attached by an adhesive.

It is to be understood that the present invention is not limited to theembodiment described above, but encompasses any and all embodimentswithin the scope of the following claims.

I claim:
 1. A floor scraper apparatus comprising; a blade holding body;a handle extending from said body; said body having a blade gripper;said blade gripper having a nose portion for receiving a scraper blade;and a scraper blade having an upper side, a lower side, a front edge anda rear shank comprising: a beveled edge portion; a skirt portion; a flatportion extending between said beveled edge portion and said skirtportion; said skirt portion having at least one upper skirt extendingupward from said flat portion and an identical lower skirt extendingdownward from said flat portion; and a shank portion extending from saidskirt portion; whereby as said scraper is urged forward, dislodged orcut material travels over said beveled edge portion and said skirtportion and is deflected by said skirt portion away from said shankportion and over said nose portion of said gripper.
 2. The floor scraperapparatus of claim 1, wherein each said skirt of said blade is generallywedge shaped, said upper skirt extending upward from said flat portionto an upper extreme and having a generally vertical rear wall extendingfrom its upper extreme to said shank portion, and said lower skirtextending upward from said flat portion to an upper extreme and having agenerally vertical rear wall extending from its upper extreme to saidshank portion.
 3. The floor scraper apparatus of claim 2, wherein eachsaid skirt of said blade is concave in shape.
 4. The floor scraperapparatus of claims 3, wherein said skirt forms a radius.
 5. The floorscraper apparatus of claim 2, wherein said flat portion and said shankportion of said blade are equal in thickness.
 6. The floor scraperapparatus of claim 5, wherein said flat portion and said shank portionof said blade are about {fraction (1/16)} inch in thickness and thedistance between the upper extreme of said upper skirt and the lowerextreme of said lower skirt is about ⅛ inch.
 7. The floor scraperapparatus of claim 6, wherein said beveled edge portion is about ⅛ inchin width, said flat portion is about ⅛ inch in width, said skirt portionis about ⅛ inch in width, and said shank portion is about ¼ inch inwidth, said blade totaling about ⅝ inch in width.
 8. The floor scraperapparatus of claim 7, wherein said blade is of constant cross sectionand about 4 inches in length.
 9. A generally planar knife or scraperblade having an upper side, a lower side, a front edge and, a rear shankcomprising: a beveled edge portion; a skirt portion; a flat portionextending between said beveled edge portion and said skirt portion; saidskirt portion having at least one upper skirt extending upward from saidflat portion and an identical lower skirt extending downward from saidflat portion; and a shank portion extending from said skirt portion;whereby, as said blade is urged forward, dislodged or cut materialtravels over said beveled edge portion and said skirt portion and isdeflected by said skirt portion away from said shank portion.
 10. Theknife or scraper blade of claim 9, wherein each said skirt is generallywedge shaped, said upper skirt extending upward from said flat portionto an upper extreme and having a generally vertical rear wall extendingfrom its upper extreme to said shank portion, and said lower skirtextending downward from said flat portion to a lower extreme and havinga generally vertical rear wall extending from its lower extreme to saidshank portion.
 11. The knife or scraper blade of claim 10, wherein eachsaid skirt is concave in shape.
 12. The knife or scraper blade of, claim11, wherein said each said skirt forms a radius.
 13. The knife orscraper blade of claim 10, wherein said flat portion and said shankportion are equal in thickness.
 14. The knife or scraper blade of claim13, wherein said flat portion and said shank portion are about {fraction(1/16)} inch in thickness and the distance between the upper extreme ofsaid upper skirt and the lower extreme of said lower skirt is about ⅛inch.
 15. The knife or scraper blade of claim 14, wherein said bevelededge portion is about ⅛ inch in width, said flat portion is about ⅛ inchin width, said skirt portion is about ⅛ inch in width, and said shankportion is about ¼ inch in width, said blade totaling about ⅝ inch inwidth.
 16. The knife or scraper blade of claim 15, wherein said blade isof constant cross section and about 4 inches in length.